Tips on Selling Character Designs

Have you ever wondered how some cartoon characters became so famous - with hundreds or thousands of merchandise bearing their names and images? Remove the ones with animated series out of the equation since they have a marketing medium - and you still have a handful of characters out there who became famous through the merit of their designs. Examples are Julius the Monkey and Emily the Stange.

This article discusses some tips for creating and selling cartoon characters.

Cute VS Cool

Are your characters cute or cool? Cute characters easily attract the females and the young children markets - two of the largest consumer markets. Character merchandise is often cheaper and more affordable. Therefore profit through sheer volumes of sales can be quite astounding.

Cool characters are more suitable as collectibles, and often cater more to the male market. As they are often more exclusive and expensive, sales volumes are seldom as impressive as cute character merchandise.

In the spirit of games development, decision makers might simply want to pick a design that is most suited for the game concept. But as far as possible, if the game concept so allows, do try to go for cute characters because they stand a higher chance of getting licensed for merchandising.

Character Bible

A character bible is the foundation for every product that would stem from an intellectual property - be it a game, animated series, comic, story book etc. Regardless of the resulting product, everything should refer back to the character bible. This is what the bible is all about - a kind of blueprint for an intellectual property besides being a showcase for the intellectual property.

Style Guide

A style guide to showcase your characters in their full glory is absolutely necessary if you plan to license your characters. The average licensee is often quite unimaginative and seldom sees beyond what you show them. So if you are showing them screen captures of your game, hoping that they would see the full potential of your character designs, chances are they will not. A style guide with multiple poses and designs of each character would help them understand and appreciate your character designs better.

Product Concept Boards

In your style guide, it would be good to include product concept boards. These are renderings of mock products with your character designs integrated within. Product concept boards are great for letting potential licensees see how they can use your character designs on their products.

You can visit the Mediafreaks blog to pick up more tips on anime character design

This article was contributed by Aldric Chang - a creative businessman who is active in music composing and production, internet marketing, casual games production, animation production, cartoon production and character licensing. His 3d animation studio - Mediafreaks - is focused on producing high-end animation work for documentary producers, advertising houses and cartoon animated series - with projects ranging from the animation of dinosaurs to the visualization of natural disasters and something as chic as 3d jewelry animations

Lively
Mike
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Online Desi Games - The Indigenous Delight

We Indians have always been quite keen on everything related to entertainment. Be it cinema, music or games. Our parents spent their leisure time playing cards (rummy being the most popular of all), Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, Carrom and chess.

India is a country where fun at home increases manifold when friends and relatives gather. On a holiday or at the weekends, the whole family rejoices by playing some cool indoor games. A child grows up learning Ludo and Snakes and Ladders. Times have changed now but Indians still crave for captivating games. When PCs gained entry into every Indian home, solitaire and freecell kept every one hooked. With the advent of Internet along with social networking sites and chat messengers, the gaming portals have also gripped the masses.

Considering the huge demand and popularity of online games, the Indian entertainment industry has decided to give them an indigenous touch. The aim is to attract the masses. For that. themes based on Indian day-to-day lifestyle are adopted. You can see busy streets, unpretentious villages or intense traffic serving as a backdrop in these games. Bollywood superstars, politicians, sports persons playing the role of the main protagonists in the games. The gamers can relate to the environment easily. Obviously, it is exciting to make Amitabh Bachchan follow your instructions.

Consequently, the gamers remain glued to the game.
The idea to give the games a desi transformation is highly acclaimed throughout the country. The average count of the online gamers in India is comparable to most of the developed countries where online gaming initially evolved.

Some of the games that wrote their success stories are Babul game (with Amitabh Bachchan playing the lead), Laloo Ki Laadli (quite obviously, Laloo Prasad Yadav shines here), Meter down racing (an auto rickshaw race), Bipasha's Beach blaze (Bipasha sizzles on skates in a beach), Salman Safe Mode (Salman behind the steering on Mumbai streets which is not at all safe) are just few of the online desi games created exclusively for our Indian game lovers. People get immense delight watching and controlling their favourite icons with a few keystrokes.
These days, the automobile brands have made their way into the gaming industry to gain publicity amongst the Indians. Logan from Mahindra has launched itself with a racing game. Same goes for Ford, which displays its models through a very popular game.
The dimensions of indoor gaming have changed a lot. But the fun remains the same. The Indian game lovers have come out of the addiction of the usual games board games and now find their niche in the world of online gaming. Online Indian games are scaling new heights with every new innovation and passing day.

Prashant Dhama is an expert author. He has written many articles on Free Online Games

2d Animation
Essential
3ds Max

Oil Painting - The Next Big Thing

Oil Paintings For Everyone

Have you ever wondered why Hand Painted Art is so expensive?

Does it annoy you that it is only the so called elite and wealthy that seem to be able to afford real art?

Is the only art you own just prints or poor imitations?

Is there another way?

There is a new revolution sweeping the art world and it will turn all the stereo types about art on their head and remove a lot of the secrets about why the methods and madness in the art world are the way they are.

The world is going through a phenomenal power and socio-economic shift whereby in the very new future, China and India are going to emerge as the new global superpowers. This means they will be the primary dictators of world affairs, culture and where the greatest business opportunities will present themselves. Now without going into some sort of rant about the pros and cons of this seismic shift in the status quo which is the US filling this role, this does present an interesting opportunity when it comes to art. You can get in early and both enjoy some of the greatest masterpieces the world will come to know in the coming years and also be making sound financial decisions at the same.

There are tremendous amount of talented artists particularly in China, all desperate to get both their name and their creations out into the global arena. To visit with these artists and to observe their hand crafted masterpieces is to realise that you are the presence of artistic genius as if you were lucky enough to stumble upon a Beethoven sitting at the piano at the first time. Previously there has never been a convenient nor practical method, short of travelling to China and visiting these undiscovered wonders at their studios or market stalls, to accessing this art for yourself.

However there are now options and systems which have been created to allow people the world over to access these creations and adorne their homes with oil paintings and the like making family members and friends crazy with jealousy. Paintings covering an entire wall, hand painted to the finest detail, which Westerners assume would cost a minimum of thousands of dollars, are now filling people's homes who earn nothing more than minimum wage. What is more people are having life size paintings of themselves, possibly in front of a famous monuments like the Taj Mahal, commissioned and painted for them. They may be taken from a photo from a recent holiday and suddenly brought to life by their very own Van Gogh or Da Vinci.

To get a sneak preview at one of the new wave of organisations bringing these oil paintings to everbody's lounge room, go to www.jiveexchange.com. There you will find oil paintings that are the first and newest selections of this new Asian revolution that will sweep the world in decades to come. It may just be that Art may be the newest hobby toy of the masses, finally accessible to everybody who so desires it. Art is very personal and what one may find a wonder, another might deem hideous but that is essentially the beauty of paintings as like music it leaves an impression on the person long after it is has left their active stream of consciousness.

Till Next Time...

Chris Jacob
(Oil Paintings - Free Painting Of You Offer)

Born 25th December 1981 in Melbourne, Australia, Chris (also known as CJ) graduated from Monash University in 2003 after completing Bachelor degrees in Commerce and Business Systems. He went on to co-own a Computer Troubleshooters franchise which also introduced him to the opportunities of writing for the News Corp, mX newspaper and Metro News in Australia. He continues in that jounalistic capcity today. He sold the business in late 2005 allowing him to pursue other opportunities both around Australia and abroad. At last check he was involved in global enterprises covering bereavement and business broking, writing a couple of books, becoming an art distributor and developing an education platform for the new millenium. Chris can always be found having a good time on the dance floor and at any good restaraunt around town usually with a wine in his hand. He currently has no permanent residence but still calls Australia home.

Max
Lynda
Max

Fighting the Water With All Purpose Waders

If you enjoy the outdoors, whether it is camping, hiking, or fishing, then you may need a pair of all purpose waders as part of your outdoor gear. Many waders on the market have a breathable feature that will give you comfort whenever you confront extreme temps and waterways.

While it is nearly impossible to find one wader to match every season and application, chest-high stocking-foot breathable waders definitely come closest to fitting the bill. These types of waders are normally equipped with a waterproof and breathable membrane that helps keep water out while allowing perspiration vapors to escape though the membrane, keeping you dry and comfortable. This is especially helpful when wade fishing on warm spring and summer days, or when you are frequently moving in an attempt to cover water.

When the temperature drops in fall and winter, simply adding a good base layer beneath your breathable waders will keep you surprisingly warm, and when you have on your neoprene waders, a good hike to the river gets me soggy, even when the temps get real low. After fishing for thirty minutes or so, this moisture build-up has nowhere to go and you will end up shivering the rest of the day, totally defeating the purpose of the neoprene wader. Neoprene waders are reserved for the absolutely coldest days when you know you will not be doing a lot of hiking, but the rest of the time you will want a pair of waders that are more breathable.

Unlike waders with an attached boot, the stocking-foot waders will give you the option to adapt your footwear to the bottom composition of the waterway. If you only intend to fish the same stretch of water, then by all means, choosing a wader with boots attached that work for that waterway is fine, but if you are the adventurous type, then you will benefit from stocking-foot waders and the ability to adapt to the various bottom compositions encountered when fishing different waterways. As for the wader height, most prefer chest-highs because they are constantly wading out into water that ends up being just a little deeper than they intended. Plus, if you are fairly short, waist-highs only give you a couple of feet of water to wade in comfortably.

Additional reinforcement in the seat and knees for very high-stress and high-wear areas will provide additional strength and durability to ensure extended wader life. Waders that have the one hundred percent waterproof and breathable membrane is laminated to a high grade five-layer nylon upper. Some waders have a front hand-warmer pocket that will keep your hands warm in-between casts. Others have two external zippered organizer pockets and one inside utility pocket that will give you addition areas to stow gear.

Built-in gravel cuffs with lace keepers keep rocks out of your boots, and since they are attached, you will never forget them at home. Most waders have stocking feet that are made with comfortable high-density neoprene and accessory D-rings allow for the attachment of water bottles or whatever else you might need for a day on the water.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for sweatpants, sweatshirts, outdoor gear, sports clothing, and model motorcycles. Click here when you want to find sweatpants, sweatshirts, waders.

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